Pregnant Woman In Pain And Bleeding Fined For Parking At Hospital Without A Ticket

14/08/2014 16:58
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Updated
20 May 2015

Ellen Wallwork
Parentdish UK

A pregnant woman who rushed to hospital, terrified she was losing the second of her twin babies, received a fine for parking without a pay-and-display ticket.

Kirsty Tierney-Jones, 33, rushed to Queen's Hospital in Romford with severe pain and bleeding after falling over at home when she was 38 weeks pregnant.

She was especially anxious because she had miscarried one of her twin babies at 14 weeks after experiencing similar symptoms. Kirsty had also suffered throughout her pregnancy from hyperemesis gravidarum, which causes extreme nausea - the same condition the Duchess of Cambridge experienced during the early weeks of her pregnancy with Prince George.

She drove herself from her home in Hornchurch, Essex to the hospital, arriving at 5am, and was helped from her car and into A & E by an elderly couple.

She left her vehicle in a parking space in the hospital's car park, but - understandably - did not have the time to buy a ticket from a pay-and-display machine.

Thankfully, she later gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Alice-Neve.

But she was shocked to receive a £75 parking fine several weeks after her terrifying visit to A&E on October 18 2003.

Kirsty appealed the fine, but at first the company refused to revoke the fine and threatened her with legal action if she did not pay.

"It's absolutely disgusting, my child's life was at risk and they still want to fine me," she said. "My baby could've died. I had already lost her sibling.

"It would have been different if it was an appointment, but this was an emergency."

Gemini Parking Solutions now claim to have cancelled the ticket after a local paper, the Romford Recorder, intervened on Kirsty's behalf.